
While the Labour and Conservative leaders will be delighted with their showing, Nigel Farage, Ed Davey and Zach Polanski have less reason for cheer
Andy Burnham
Continue reading...Exclusive: Three years after filming began on the contentious Lucca Mortis, starring Dustin Hoffman, the British director is still in dispute with producers over which version to release, and a battle over rights rumbles on
Peter Greenaway’s new movie was supposed to mark a glorious swansong for him and his lead actor Dustin Hoffman, the Oscar-winning star of The Graduate and Tootsie. Both men were in their 80s when shooting began in Lucca, Tuscany, in late 2023. Neither knew the storms ahead or that this was going to turn into arguably the most troublesome project in Greenaway’s career.
Turn the clock back to 2023 and Greenaway, who has been based in the Netherlands for the last 20 years, could hardly conceal his excitement during a Q&A at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in the huge art deco Tuschinski theatre in Amsterdam in November 2023, after receiving a lifetime achievement award from the festival. He told the audience that he would be flying to Italy the next morning “and that, all being well, we will start shooting seriously in the next couple of days”.
Continue reading...Whether on the frontline in Ukraine or skate parks in Soweto, the genre is still a vital outlet for disaffected people everywhere. Here, musicians explain how they rage against the machine
Andriy Zholob, vocalist/guitarist, Beton: When MTV arrived in Ukraine, I heard Nirvana, the Offspring, Bad Brains, Social Distortion and thrash metal, and realised that all this started from punk rock. Our drummer and I were in a ska-punk band first, but when our vocalist became pregnant we started Beton in 2017 and played lots of festivals.
Continue reading...It’s easier to blame brutes and sadists for extreme violence. But as we see in the documentary, modern genocides are fueled by people who are uncomfortably recognizable
Werner Best, a senior SS official and jurist who helped organize the Nazi death squads that murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews, is also known for his statement: “We must destroy the enemy without hating him.” He belonged to a younger generation of Nazi technocrats, who despised the foul-mouthed, beer-bellied, brown-shirted “old fighters” of the Nazi party in the 1920s, and believed in organizing genocide neatly and dispassionately. After the fall of the regime, Best escaped justice for the rest of his long life, dying peacefully in Germany in 1989. His chilling statement came to my mind while I was watching the film NAZA.
I grew up in Tel Aviv and have visited there often in recent years. That is why the interviews with 24 Israeli soldiers and intelligence officers, which make up this documentary, felt strangely familiar. The conversations are conducted at night on rooftops, and the camera scans the cityscape, lingering on apartment windows as their inhabitants watch TV and make dinner. The landscape was intimately recognizable, and I felt a natural affinity with those people living their lives. I also recognized the way the interviewees talked – their speech patterns and choice of words. They reminded me of my son, who served more than a decade ago in the intelligence unit many of them might have belonged to.
Continue reading...From a historic bathhouse in Sweden to forest bathing in Croatia, readers share their favourite places to relax and recharge
• Tell us about a small European ski resort – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher
Tucked away off a pretty shopping street in a beautiful art nouveau building is one of Stockholm’s oldest spas, Centralbadet where a day ticket costs from £23. As winter darkness descends, candles are lit around the pool and a quiet calm envelops you. Swimming by candlelight is a treat. Next a sauna followed by an ice-cold plunge. Afterwards a nightcap is in order so it’s a brisk walk in the cold crisp air to Fotografiska restaurant. It’s a great spot to savour one of Stockholm’s best views; the old town Gamla Stan and the twinkling lights on Lake Mälaren.
Sarah Rochfort
The third series of Jimmy McGovern’s breathtaking series Time stars David Tennant – and might just be its best ever. We go behind the scenes
“I don’t think you would find a young offender institution (YOI) in which stories like these haven’t happened. Seventeen years of age, loads of energy, hormones, bravado – you know they’ll kick off. It must be an absolute nightmare.”
Yes, Jimmy McGovern has gone back to prison again. After two series of Time, which told stories from men’s and women’s institutions, he has turned his attention to perhaps the most distressing ones of all. Set in a YOI, it’s full of tales of bad decisions, directionless rage and lost potential at the most vulnerable of ages. If this third series is, as he suggests, the last, it is quite the curtain call.
Continue reading...Vivien Lichtenstein says party leader should stand down over ‘Zionism is racism’ policy
The leader of the Jewish Greens has called for Zack Polanski to step down as pressure increases on the Green leader to acknowledge anger within the party over a new policy that equates Zionism with racism and calls for the state of Israel to be abolished.
The comments by Vivien Lichtenstein come after Caroline Lucas, the Greens’ former leader and first MP, criticised Polanski for a lack of leadership in missing the debate and vote at the weekend that resulted in the policy being passed.
Continue reading...Former prince surrendered lease on home within its first 25 years after public outcry about the rent he paid
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been granted £302,000 in compensation after the lease on his former Royal Lodge home in Windsor was officially surrendered.
A crown estate spokesperson said the former prince paid £1.8m in repair and restoration costs, and the lease was handed back more than 50 years early.
Continue reading...Condemnation comes amid fierce backlash from US lawmakers who branded the move ‘grotesque’ and compared it to actions of some terror groups and oppressive governments
While there has been bipartisan backlash to Pete Hegseth’s announcement that the Department of Defense plans to livestream Nidal Hasan’s execution in December – some hard-right Republicans have welcomed the news.
“Public execution is what this terrorist deserves,” said Andy Ogles, a GOP congressman from Tennessee. “We will be watching.”
Continue reading...Exclusive: Firms made more than £340m last year from processing industrial and commercial wastewater at sewage works that are unable to remove many chemical pollutants
Water companies in the UK made more than £340m in revenue last year by pouring billions of litres of industrial and commercial wastewater into sewage treatment works that experts say are not designed to remove most chemicals, leaving pollutants to pass into rivers, seas and farmland.
Water companies in England are required by law to take industrial wastewater and issue permits called “trade-effluent consents” that allow businesses to send it to sewage works, though water companies can refuse applications.
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